FAULTY VCM. At Brgy. BF Homes, Parañaque City, faulty VCM machine causes an almost hour-long delay in voting. Photo by Nina Dino/Rappler

MANILA, Philippines – Many voting precincts on Monday, May 9, started opening way past 6 am, the scheduled start of voting, due to malfunctioning machines. This caused long lines and crowding in key areas across the country. 

At the Senior Citizens’ Hall Heroes Hills in Barangay Sta. Cruz Quezon City, voting precincts started late due to the absence of signal for the vote counting machines (VCMs). The seniors were able to start casting their ballots by 7 am, according to YB Padilla, a voter in the precinct. 

“The seniors are more prone to crowding which should have been avoided considering we are still in the pandemic,” said Padilla. 

Malfunctioning SD cards also caused delays at North Susana Executive Village in Barangay Matandang Balara, Quezon City. Voters from precincts 4384-A, 4384-B, and 4384-C were asked to leave the line and wait as the SD cards were being fixed. 

“Voters were asked to wait, and come back at 2 pm since contingency machines will come from Sta Rosa Laguna or just cast their votes but the poll watchers will insert the ballots for them once the machines are working/replaced,” said Raymond Varilla. 

This is also the case in Sauyo Elementary School in Novaliches, Quezon City. Around 7 in the morning, the first batch of voters in cluster CP1639 were told that the SD card has been corrupted. According to Nicky Felipe, a voter in the said precinct, they were advised to do manual voting. 

“Sinabi niyang [staff] mag manual voting na lang kami. Magsasagot daw kami ng balota, tapos sila ang magfe-feed sa machine once dumating ang bagong SD card. Humahaba na ang pila at inip na ang tao…Isa kami sa mga unang batch ng boboto sa cluster namin. Bakit corrupted agad,” said Felipe.

(According to one of the staff, we can proceed with manual voting. We can fill out a ballot and they can feed it to the machine once a new SD card arrives. The lines are long now. We are supposed to be one of the first to vote in our cluster. Why is it corrupted already?)

LOOK: At Brgy. BF Homes, Parañaque City, a VCM has been faulty since 6 am. Voters are given the option to wait or submit their ballots to the Board of Election Inspectors so they can feed the ballots into the VCM when it's fixed. via @ndinoelection22 #PHVote #WeDecide pic.twitter.com/ETo3ycm1uM

According to Kontradaya, “in cases where there are malfunctioning VCMs, voters have the option to allow BEI to feed the ballots but they shall sign a waiver. Ideally, however, voters should be the ones to do so and may opt to wait for the VCM to be repaired or replaced.”

In past elections where VCMs encountered technical glitches, Comelec’s established contingency procedures give the voter two options: let the electoral board batch-feed the ballot at a later time with watchers present, or wait for the VCM malfunction issue to be resolved so the voter could personally feed the ballot into the machine.

Personalities, movers, election watchdogs, and other individuals reported similar incidents at different precincts across the country: 

Was in line to vote as early as 6am when polls open. Kakatapos ko lang. Reason for delay: Nasira daw yung machine after an hour of use, ayaw mag accept ng ballots. Person in charge floated the idea na sila na lang mag feed ng ballots later para umusad na ang pila

Hello @COMELEC, first batch kami ng boboto dito sa Sauyo Elementary School at corrupted na daw ho ang SD card ng precinct cluster namin: Room 2, Castello Building #Halalan2022

LOOK: At Brgy. BF Homes, Parañaque City, faulty VCM machine causes an almost hour-long delay in voting. Upon inserting ballots in the VCM, the ballots are immediately sent back out without being read. #PHVote #WeDecide @MovePH pic.twitter.com/Fp7sHsy4k5

I was in line to vote at 5:30 am. Now they're telling us may problema daw sa VCM and we should just come back. Walang oras na binigay. Ano na ito @COMELEC?

Voters are stranded for almost 30 minutes inside a polling precinct in Pili Central School, the capital of Camarines Sur as one vote-counting machine (VCM) stops accepting ballots from the voters. Technical maintenance is now underway. Details to follow. #PHVote #WeDecide @MovePH pic.twitter.com/cvW8ogcqwd

At Barangay Holy Spirit in Quezon City, there are already long lines as of 7:19 am. Voters at precincts 1283, 1284 and 1285 are being asked to leave due to malfunctioning VCM. pic.twitter.com/u4nzmyDTVh

Grabe sira ang machine sa aming presinto at may ilan na pinaboboto na at iwan na lang daw#phvotewatch

A voting counting machine (VCM) in Ungka II, Pavia, Iloilo has been down for almost two hours already. A Pavia Comelec Officer reportedly decided and told voters to leave their ballots and proceed later.@MovePH @explained_ph @rapplerdotcom #Eleksyon2022

A vote counting machine (VCM) in San Dionisio, Iloilo experiences a paper jam. The problem has been solved after almost 30 minutes. @rapplerdotcom @explained_ph @MovePH pic.twitter.com/pTnDYWImv3

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